We Talk About Everything
by rachel-rage
Summary: A collection of little Kolly ficlets too short to publish on their own. Will add to this as I write them. Accepting prompts for this fic on my tumblr: rachelanne6791 . tumblr . com/ask
1. Bubble Bath

Karen loves bubble baths. She has always loved bubble baths, ever since she was a kid and created bubble beards in her tiny bathtub. Now that she's an adult (kind of), her baths are admittedly more relaxed.

They're also more crowded.

One of Holly and Karen's favoeirte things to do after a terribly long day is take a bubble bath together. Their tub isn't that big and the water can go from pleasantly hot to freezing all too quickly. But at the end of a long day, all it takes is a look between them and they both know, it's been a day that requires a bath to wash all the stress away.

Holly runs the bath while Karen gathers as many candles as they have lying around their flat to line every surface in the bathroom. They both grab whatever books they're currently reading- usually, in an ironic twist, Karen's deep in a piece of well respected, artistic literature, while Holly is usually in the middle of a young adult adventure novel. Sometimes they trade while they're in the tub.

Karen always gets in first- usually while Holly is still fetching a match for the candles or taking the phone off the hook so they won't be disturbed. She just can't wait, with the hot water looking so enticing. Holly always comes in and sighs at her before taking her place in the bathtub. She sits with her back against Karen's front, and usually, Karen rests her chin on Holly's shoulder.

Sometimes, Holly will leave her adventure stories behind and Karen will read to her. The greats of English literature in Karen's voice are the soundtracks of their baths; Shelley's poetry is a personal favorite. For Holly, there's just something about hearing love poems trip from Karen's lips. Usually, she punctuates a particularly lovely line with a kiss on Holly's shoulder or fingertips grazing her spine.

They always stay in until they're completely wrinkled and the bathroom mirror is too fogged up to see into. When the water cools, they get out and into snuggly warm pajamas. Baths almost never lead to them making love; it is just for utter relaxation.

Usually, after a bath, they snuggle together into bed and Holly falls asleep first, with her head on Karen's chest. And often, Karen just lies there, running her fingers through Holly's still wet hair, breathing deeply and contentedly, wondering how it is she got so lucky in a woman who lets her read Shakespeare out loud in the bathtub.


	2. How We Love

The way Karen loves Holly is simple, it's black and white. It doesn't take any special knowledge to understand it; Holly is hers, she is Holly's. It's like breathing really, it happens naturally, and she needs to keep doing it to stay alive. Sometimes it's almost second nature- she can feel it in her bones and in her blood. She's loved her for ages, so long that she doesn't even question it anymore. When Holly said she would have to go, letting her leave alone wasn't even an option. Black and white. If Holly left, she would have to leave too. Because they absolutely could not be apart. So when Holly walked out of their classroom, it took only seconds for Karen to grab her things and run out after her. No hesitation or thought. Karen has always been this way; she doesn't need alternatives or shades of gray or extenuating circumstances. And now that she's in love, that's how she loves. Like nothing else matters. Because for Karen, nothing else does.

The way Holly loves Karen is more complicated. Holly has never been a go-for-it, no questions asked, gutsy person. She was a mousy little thing all through school, trying to make her way quietly and without causing waves. Even when Karen brazenly shows her how deeply she loves her, Holly can't quite believe it. So when she falls in love, so deeply in love with someone who, to everyone else, will make things extremely complicated, she doesn't know what to do. But all of a sudden, when she says Karen can't come away with her and Karen says, "_I can_," everything becomes a lot less complicated. Even if Holly hesitates, Karen never will. And that's really all she needs.


	3. A Shining Hope

Holly is sitting in class when she decides to take Karen up on her offer.

She's set the class an essay, which they are doing their absolute best to ignore, and Holly has completely run out of patience for telling them off.

She had seen David only the night before, watched him walk out almost immediately after collapsing, heavy and slick with sweat, on top of her. She'd felt a cold, hardened knot in her gut as he left her, the sheets still a mess, and she'd tried to ignore it, but it's quite clear that she hasn't yet been able to.

Karen notices; she notices everything about Holly. Its obvious her heart isn't in it today- the class is hardly even trying to appear as though they're working. It has gotten increasingly louder and Holly has just ignored them more and more fervently.

She's seated at her desk in the front of the class, staring out the window, thinking about David and Karen, and seeing a student outside of class.

In her head, she's already made up her mind; it's wrong. Karen is sixteen. She can't possibly meet her outside of school, even for art club. In her head, she thinks, David is married. It is unreasonable to want him to stay and spend the night with his illicit lover.

Holly's ability to analyze a situation with logic like this is both a gift and a curse- she can rationalize her behavior, and others', but it hurts all the same.

And then she glances up, and catches Karen looking at her, and all of a sudden, her head is overruled. Karen doesn't look away, she just blinks and a slight blush grows in the apples of her cheeks, but she keeps looking. She chances a smile.

And suddenly, everything Holly had just logically sorted into little boxes comes rushing at her. Anger at David, and loneliness, and a more than mild curiosity about Karen, and all of a sudden her heart is beating far too fast and far too hard for an average day in her classroom.

The bell rings and she nearly jumps out of her chair. She sits through the mad rush of the students to hand in their work and leave, and when most of them have filed out, she looks up at Karen, her decision made.

"Karen, can you hang back for just a moment, please?" she says. Karen's friends give her weird looks- she's a model student, particularly in this class, and they have no idea why she'd be held back, but she just nods at them to go on.

"Um, I was wondering," Holly murmurs, suddenly feeling cowardly in the face of the moment, "Wondering if you still wanted to go to that art exhibition," she finishes. She'd stuttered a bit there. God, she'd actually stuttered.

But Karen hadn't seemed to notice- she seemed to actually be glowing.

"Yeah, of course! Do you want to go?" she asks, a bit of a lilt to her voice, a hopeful tone that she can't hide. And that tone gives Holly pause; this isn't a friendly, teacher-student trip to the art exhibition for Karen.

And then she sees the look in Karen's eyes. It's a look that says she's been waiting for this for who knows how long. She's got a shine in her eyes that speaks to an immense amount of hope, the kind that if it fails you, it'll crush you under its weight. And suddenly, to know someone feels that hopeful about being with her, even for an afternoon at an art museum, Holly's pause is abruptly over.

"I'd love to."


End file.
